Apart from the joy and celebrations, in a corner of the palace, a grave conspiracy was planned which could change the history of Florence . A teetered voice full of vengeance echoed in the room,"now we need to change our plans. It will not be as easy as we thought. "

All the three pairs of eyes moved towards the old lady. She continued, "That lady will be a threat, if we don't subside her. The way she glared at Balbina with her determined eyes, speaks a lot about her. Before, it was just Augustus but now she is also in the scene. "

After hearing this, a young man full of vehemence spoke, " I can kill her and it is just matter of seconds for me, Stephano. The sooner she dies, better it is for us . "

The beautiful young Balbina supported her lover and said, "yes Stephano , my Luca could kill her within seconds and it will make our path easier. " She glanced at Luca who was passing her a sugary smile and smiled in return.

The old lady, Aelia glared at young lovers and scolded them," killing is not an option everytime. We could be the major suspects if she dies and now is not the time to get their focus on us. Calm your hormones, both of you. "

The smile playing on the young couple lips instantly faded and they lowered their heads.

The bulky man stopped moving the feather in his hand and lifted his hazel eyes and smiled at Luca, "what's the hurry. Keep the thrill alive. Let the little family enjoy for few days and then we will play our game. For now just pass this message to her. " He folded the paper which was blotted by the red ink and stuck it to an arrow.

Keeping the feather down , Stephano stood up graciously and scrapped his chin which had a light subtle beard. Keeping his hand on one of the window which gave the view of the celebration going outside ,he said in a distinct voice, " distance between Florence and Rome is less than the distance between Rome and our kingdom which is a clear cut advantage to the army of Florence . We need to distract them if we want 'The Eagles' to rule and nothing could be more better distraction than the politics going on in the palace. The day Britain will remove his army from the Rome, will be the day quest to win Rome will start and that day is not far away. If everything goes according to the plan, 'The Eagles ' would be ruling the whole Italy. " A vicious laughter of Stephano and his companions filled the room.

The old lady, Aelia had a bit of doubt so she asked, "What if Britain attacks Rome? Clearly they are stronger than King Victor's army. "

Stephano removed his hands from the window and turned towards Aelia and shook his head, " Britain signed a treaty with King Victor's father and other kings of that time to let them use Mare Nostrum ( present day Mediterranean sea) for trade and bringing slaves from Africa. In return, they promised to never attack Italy. They are not fools to break their promise and strain their relations with Italy because they need Italy's support in future. They will just use Victor and then leave. "

Everyone nodded in understanding and Stephano continued and looked at Balbina and Aelia , " keep doing your job and inform me even if a spoon falls down in the palace. Not a single piece of information should be missed. " They both understood the gravity of the situation and assured him to do there work properly.

He took the arrow from the table and turned towards Luca ,"deliver this message to our new queen." Luca smirked after hearing the adjective, 'queen'. Taking the arrow in his hand ,he inspected it carefully .

Chuckling, Stephano took the glass of wine and raised it, " for our upcoming victory. " Remaining three conspirators too raised their glasses and repeated after him.

💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎

After the dance, everyone took their seats to have wine and few chit chats. King Atticus, Marcus, Augustus, Ritha, Aurelius, Olivia and few others aristocratic members of the neighboruring kingdoms sat on a big round table placed. Augustus and Ritha were sitting on adjacent chairs and little Justus was on his father's lap.

Ritha was busy in answering few questions which elite ladies threw at her, suddenly she feels a commotin besides her and again that prude man came in her vision. He sat at the chair placed besides her and smirked which Rithambara didn't even bother to return.

While she was smiling at little Justus she felt a hand sliding on her lap. Her face instantly turned red because of the rage bursting in her veins. Her body started shaking as it was the last thread to her resistance.

Alessandro mistook the redness on her face. He thought she is blushing so to irk her he said, "my lady you are blushing red, any specific reasons? "

Augustus knew something was wrong as his wife's face showed anger but he decided to let her handle.

Here Alessandro was bubbling with joy when suddenly he felt a death grip on his hand which he kept on Ritha's lap. An excruciating pain travelled up from his left hand to whole body when Ritha started crushing it. The grip was so tight that he wasn't even able to wriggle his hands. His breaths became uneven and face turned completely red.

Without freeing his hand from her death grip, Ritha spoke, "Sir, I'm newly married so my blush is justified but why are you turning red and if I'm not mistaken then you look a bit in pain ?"

Everyone sitting on the table glanced at Alessandro and were really concerned after seeing his face. They were expecting an answer from him but here, he was in so much pain that he couldn't utter a single word. He could feel his each and every bone breaking. He tried his best to not scream but he failed, he shouted at the end, "aaaaah! Pardon me, I beg you"

Everyone was shocked at his behaviour except Rithambara. She glared at him which he was not able to match up as his hand was getting numb.